1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to wheelbarrows and, more particularly, to wheelbarrows whose barrow can be caused to dump while the wheel and frame thereof are maintained on the ground.
2. Background Information
Wheelbarrows to manually haul material have been in use for a long time. While wheelbarrows are generally an efficient way to move material from one point to another, a recognized problem is the ability to easily and/or precisely dump the contents of the barrow rather than merely unload its contents. This is because the barrow of a traditional wheelbarrow is fixed to the frame. Therefore, the frame must be lifted and tilted relative to its wheel in order to dump the barrow's contents. Because the load within the barrow can be 200 to 300 pounds, it may be difficult for even a strong individual to manually lift and/or tilt the wheelbarrow in order to dump its contents at a particular spot. Even when the load is light, it may not be easy for some individuals to lift and tilt the entire wheelbarrow in order to dump the contents from the barrow.
In view of the above problem, various wheelbarrows have been designed throughout the years with dumping barrows. Some of these wheelbarrows are shown and described in the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 726,931; 1,063,112; 2,037,222; 2,852,304; 2,973,224; 3,092,418; 4,270,786; 6,886,838; 7,547,026; 7,775,531; 7,937,859; and 8,474,855. While these wheelbarrows all have dumping barrows, the manner in which dumping is achieved is, of course, different for each patent. Given the variety of dumping wheelbarrows, it is apparent that they must be deficient in some respects. A review of the various patented dumping mechanisms shows that it would still take an individual of particular strength to operate the dumping mechanisms and thus dump the barrow's contents.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,270,786, however, recognized the aforementioned problem and thus provides a wheelbarrow in which a hydraulic piston is used to assist in forward tilting (dumping) of the pivoting barrow of the wheelbarrow. While the hydraulic piston tilts the barrow forward regardless of the weight of the barrow's contents, the wheelbarrow suffers from several deficiencies that makes its use undesirable in many situations. Particularly, the frame of the wheelbarrow must be heavy in order to support a hydraulic piston. The heavier the frame, the harder it is to lift the wheelbarrow via its handles and wheel (move) the wheelbarrow. Also, the single, center mounted hydraulic piston makes it inherently unstable during dumping of various types of barrow contents. Moreover, the user does not have complete control of the wheelbarrow or barrow during dumping since the user has to operate the hydraulic pump for the hydraulic piston. Furthermore, the use of hydraulic fluid is problematic in many respects. All of these deficiencies therefore makes its use undesirable.
In view of the above, there is a need for an improved assisted lift dumping wheelbarrow that overcomes the deficiencies of the prior art.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an improved assisted lift dumping wheelbarrow that overcomes the deficiencies of the prior art.